Ertugral was understandably pleased with the result after the game, not only with the maximum points earned, but by the manner in which his charges handled the encounter.

“I knew this team had the capacity – I know it’s easy to say after winning, but we also had a very organised win against Orlando Pirates,” the Turk said.

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“In our defensive organisational forms, we are now getting to the next level. There are lots of elements we need to look into, as we cannot just come and play offensive football – we did that in the first half an hour, which SuperSport did not expect at all. We pressured them into playing in certain areas and then closed them down, and they couldn’t cope with it.”

Erturgal says their plan against their Pretoria rivals worked to perfection, hailing his side as a marvel to watch.

“I was worried a dilly-dally ball might go in for them, but I knew if we could get one goal in, we could go back, close shop completely and play on the counter,” he said. “And that worked for us, and on the counter we had a lucky goal in the end.

“But overall we completely deserved the victory because of the attitude of the players; everyone did their job and it’s marvellous to watch a team at that level, the fighting spirit and the type of football.”

The result leaves Ajax in 14th place with 24 points after 23 games, with SuperSport just two points ahead in 12th place after the same number of games played.